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Entries in New Orleans (3)

Saturday
Feb252012

Blue Highways: Lake Itasca, Minnesota

Unfolding the Map

After a brief layoff, we resume our trip at the headwaters of the Mississippi River.  William Least Heat-Moon (LHM) crosses it in five steps, and as we cross with him, I'll reflect on the importance of the river and relate a haunting experience I had next to it some years ago nearly two-thousand miles downstream in New Orleans.  Get to the source by following the map to Lake Itasca.

Book Quote

"The lake was Itasca and the stream, a twelve-inch-deep rush of cold clarity over humps of boulders, was the Mississippi River.  I crossed it in five steps.  The Father of Waters, beginning a two-thousand-mile journey to join the source of all waters, was here a newborn - small and pure."

Blue Highways: Part 7, Chapter 11


Where Lake Itasca begets the Mississippi River. Photo by Christine Kar and hosted at Wikimedia Commons. Click on photo to go to host page.

Lake Itasca, Minnesota

On this literary journey, we have already crossed the Mississippi twice.  The first crossing was at St. Louis, very early in LHM's trip, where I focused on the city in my third blog post about Blue Highways.  I also referenced an earlier post from my On the Road series, on which I wrote about the Gateway Arch.

The second time we crossed the Mississippi on our Blue Highways journey, we did it at Vicksburg as LHM sat on the bluffs and gave some facts about the siege of the city in the Civil WarMy post for Vicksburg was focused on the Civil War as our first modern war.

The only post where I've really looked at the Mississippi River was in my On the Road series when Sal Paradise crosses the Mississippi into Davenport, Iowa.  The river fascinates me, however.  I've seen it in a number of different states, and most recently I stood alongside its bank in New Orleans a few days ago.  It travels so many miles that it is difficult to believe that the river I saw in Minnesota, Illinois, Missouri and Louisiana is the same river.  It is even more difficult to believe that this vast collection of water draining America's heartland could have a source, and at its head could be something that one could step over in five steps.

I've not visited Lake Itasca, but I'm certain that some of the drops of that lake, escaping down the Mississippi sometime in the past, passed by me as I stood on the bank at the New Orleans riverfront in the midst of costumed Mardi Gras revelers. Whenever I stand on the banks of the Mississippi in New Orleans, I'm reminded of one of the most haunting images I've ever had.  It's a Mardi Gras story, and it's on my mind since I was just there for that unique American celebration.

It was probably my second or third attendance at Mardi Gras, 2002 or 2003.  My wife and I had developed a tradition by then of spending Fat Tuesday costumed in the French Quarter, wandering around in and out of bars and enjoying the cavalcade of costumed people, walking parades, and coordinated krewes of merry revelers assembled on the flimsiest of themes.  That year the fog was thick over the Quarter, making everyone nearby seem very close and yet, 50 feet down the street, fantastic shapes dark in the afternoon gloom flitted on the edge of imagination in the narrow streets.  The famous Society of St. Anne walking parade came by, and we jumped into the midst of the costumed parade, lost them in the fog and maze of streets, and then found them again as they made their way to the Mississippi.  The krewe has a tradition of carrying the ashes of departed members for their last parade through the French Quarter, and then sprinkling their ashes into the Mississippi.  We didn't know of this tradition at the time, but we followed the krewe up to the levee and to the landing where they gathered and then performed a ceremony with streamered hula hoops.  They dipped the hula hoops into the river and then waved them over the assembled members, droplets baptising the participants.  Then they spread ashes.

On any other day, a beautiful day for example, it would have been special.  But the fog over the Mississippi, the darkened bulk of a giant cargo ship passing in the middle of the river, the stark colors of the costumes standing out against the gray river reflecting the gray sky, added up to one of the most haunting scenes I have ever seen.  I won't forget it.  Given that I probably won't have a jazz funeral in New Orleans, I told my wife that I too would like my ashes paraded through the French Quarter when I die, and some - not all but some - sprinkled into the Mississippi to become part of that great river flowing through that great city.

Without the Mississippi, we would miss so much that defines the United States.  Without the Mississippi, one of our greatest pieces of literature, Huckleberry Finn, would not exist and possibly Mark Twain would have just been known as a good writer.  Without the Mississippi our economy would not have developed as it did by trade down its length and through its tributaries.  My favorite city of New Orleans would not exist without the river, and St. Louis might only be a decaying frontier town. The Mississippi Delta blues would sound a lot different if they existed at all.  And certainly, a haunting and wonderful event would have never crossed my experience without the muddy waters rolling past a Carnival celebration.

As I write these words, it is still difficult to believe that somewhere on a small glacial lake in Minnesota, an otherwise unimpressive stream that takes five steps to cross not only gives birth to one of the great rivers of the world, but also a river of history, culture, celebration and everything else pertaining to life along its banks.

Musical Interlude

I have a double shot for you in this post.  The first song that put the Mississippi in my mind was Black Water by The Doobie Brothers.  The second, Louisiana 1927 by Randy Newman, shows that the river can give life and take it away as well.

 

If you want to know more about Lake Itasca

Crooked Creek Observer: Lake Itasca (blog)
Itasca Area Lakes Tourism Association
Itasca State Park
Lake Itasca Region Pioneer Farmers
MinnesotaBound.com: Lake Itasca
Wikipedia: Lake Itasca

Next up: Walker, Minnesota

Monday
Feb132012

Littourati News: On hiatus for a few days

Hi Littourati!  I'm sorry to say there will be no more new posts until after February 23rd.  There are two reasons for this, one fun and one stupid.

1)  I am going to the Mardi Gras in New Orleans.  I have done this every year since I moved there in 2000, and have continued it even after I moved away.  It is a great time of year where people just have fun up to Lent, where then one becomes sober and turns one's mind to self-reflection and spirituality.  I don't know if I do that, but I enjoy the fun.  And it's not THAT kind of fun, either.  My Mardi Gras is mostly family friendly.  Yes, I did say mostly...

2)  Oh no!  I somehow have misplaced my Blue Highways.  I laid my copy down and now I can't find it.  So even if I wanted to do a new post, I'll have to buy a new copy.  I had hoped that I could get a Kindle version for my phone, but it isn't coming out until April.  Oh well...

For those reasons, there will be a few days until the next post centered on Lake Itasca, Minnesota.  But don't worry...the posts will come back in style after the 23rd.

In the meantime, laissez lais bontemps roulet!

Michael Hess

Thursday
Dec232010

Blue Highways: Delcambre, Louisiana

Unfolding the Map

Click on Thumbnail for MapWilliam Least Heat-Moon (LHM) drives through Delcambre, leading me to muse on things in Cajun country that I missed doing when I had a perfectly good chance while living in New Orleans.  Ah, well.  I still have 40-50 years left to do it.  To see where Delcambre sits on the journey we are traveling, click on the thumbnail at right.  Anyone know about the Cajun country progressive poker game in a pirogue?  Just wondering...

Book Quote

"I took Louisiana 14: roadsides of pink thistle, cemeteries jammed with aboveground tombs, cane fields under high smokestacks of sugar factories, the salt-domed country, then shrimp trawlers at Delcambre."

Blue Highways: Chapter 3, Part 14


A boat at Delcambre's Shrimp Festival. Image at EatLikeANative.com. Click on photo to go to host site.

Delcambre, Louisiana

One of the things that I missed while living in Louisiana were three or four events that I heard take place in many towns in Cajun country.   I really wished I had taken time to do these things, though as I look back on it, being a graduate student did limit my time especially toward the end of my stay in New Orleans when I was studying hard for my comprehensive exams.  Regardless, I still have some regrets I didn't do these things.

One thing I didn't do was attend a Cajun Mardi Gras.  There isn't as much of the pomp and spectacle of a Mardi Gras in New Orleans, but I heard and read that these events are very nice.  Before I talk about it though, let me rant for a moment while I have the speakers box about some misconceptions of Mardi Gras.

My wife, Megan, and I in costume at Mardi Gras 2010 in the French Quarter in New Orleans.I speak to a lot of people who tell me that they would NEVER go to a Mardi Gras in New Orleans.  They see the pictures and film of people on Bourbon Street drinking, puking and flashing their naughty parts for beads.  These people doing those things are TOURISTS!!!  They come to New Orleans thinking that is what is supposed to happen on Mardi Gras, and they make it happen.  They stay on Bourbon Street.  Unfortunately, that is the view that most people get of Mardi Gras.  Snoop Dogg's girlie videos done there don't help the image.  The Mardi Gras I know is family friendly.  It is celebrated in parades through Uptown, where children are set at the top of stepladders and get more beads thrown to them than anyone.  It is where cookouts happen as people wait for the huge, long parades with fantastic floats and masked riders.  It is a day where everyone is friendly to each other.  My Mardi Gras also happens in the French Quarter on Fat Tuesday, where my wife and I walk around in costume and check out the costumes of locals.  Sure, there's some risque ones, and you might see an occasional naked person, but that's the exception not the norm.  The norm is families with children, enjoying what literally amounts to a fun Halloween/Christmas atmosphere in February or sometimes March.  So go see a Mardi Gras!

That's my rant.  Mardi Gras in the Cajun country is even more down home.  Floats, but not as fancy.  Costumes, but not as decked out.  Neat events like chasing a chicken down.  Great food like gumbo and etoufee and jambalaya.  Great music.  Even more of a family atmosphere because there aren't hundreds of thousands of people packed in.  All in a small town atmosphere.  Having grown up in a small town, I find myself at home in such celebrations.

Another activity that takes place in smaller municipalities in Cajun country, and which LHM's passage above reminds me of, is the blessing of the fleet.  Delcambre blesses its fleet as part of an annual Shrimp Festival.  So do other bayou towns with a fleet and a passage to the gulf.  Every year, the shrimp trawlers head out for the first fishing trip of the season, and as they pass by, a priest stands at dockside and blesses them as they go by.  Again, it is a festive occasion, since many families depend on the shrimp season for the livelihoods.  This is why catastrophic events such as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the BP oil spill can really cause a blow to the regional economy - no shrimp means very difficult times for many families.  The blessing of the fleet with holy water is one way which these fishermen try to ensure a good season.  It might help - we don't know - and it certainly can't hurt.

A third activity that I heard takes place down in the bayous is a progressive poker game where you go from bar to bar in a pirogue.  A pirogue is a small boat that is paddled or poled in bayou country.  I don't know if this actually exists, and I can't find any mention of it when I do a search, but if it does it sounds really cool.  One could go from backwater bayou bar to backwater bayou bar lazily in a boat, play his or her hand, maybe win some money, but also maybe meet some really cool people in the process.  And drink Dixie Beer.  Doesn't sound like a bad deal to me.

Once again, I find I'm kicking myself for not doing these things when I had the chance.  It's an open secret that I think it would be wonderful to live in New Orleans again - it's a place that one can grow to love despite the ever present daily difficulties and annoyances of living there.  Poorly maintained streets, crime, the third-world local and state bureaucracy, for examples, are things one has to deal with if one wants to put down roots in New Orleans.  On the other hand, it is a place that knows how to have fun when it's warranted, and how to exist despite what the rest of the country thinks.  I'm just weird enough to live there, and maybe I will again someday.  And if I do, I most certainly will take advantage of visiting Cajun country and trying to catch a glimpse of a culture that human progress in all its forms may make disappear someday.

If you want to know more about Delcambre

Delcambre, Louisiana for Kids
Delcambre Shrimp Festival
Louisiana Tourism Site: Delcambre
Wikipedia: Delcambre

Next up:  Abbeville, Louisiana